GROUP ASKS CITY TO JOIN FIGHT AGAINST POT LAWS

City Leaders Aren't Eager to Take Up a Debate on Loosening Marijuana
Laws.

Duluthians love lively community debate.

They have anguished over the smoking ban, East High School's hockey
coach and the Ten Commandments monument that once adorned the lawn
outside City Hall.

Fear not, community watchdogs. Here comes a new issue that might
tickle the hearts and minds of Duluthians, although city leaders are
running the opposite direction of this debate.

A group has asked the city to take the lead in the push for looser
marijuana laws. Ideally, they would like recreational marijuana use to
be legal.

"The huge prison population of the U.S.A. is composed primarily of
nonviolent drug offenders, essentially victimless crimes," said David
Hopkins of Superior, a member of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Community Cannabis Coalition. "This
violation of civil rights disrupts families, places of employment and
communities."

The group wants Duluth city leaders to support a resolution that asks
state and federal lawmakers to throttle back on the enforcement of
personal marijuana use. They also want marijuana to be allowed for
medical reasons and to let farmers to grow hemp, a nonaddictive cousin
of marijuana that can be used to make clothing, rope and other products.

Hopkins calls the ban on marijuana for medical uses "a slap in the
face of the medical community, who are forbidden from using this
healing herb."

Marijuana is known to help AIDS patients reduce nausea, vomiting and
loss of appetite. Glaucoma patients have used it to reduce eye
pressure, chemotherapy patients claim it calms the effects of
treatment and those with multiple sclerosis say it reduces muscle pain
and spasms caused by the disease.

The group has asked Councilor Greg Gilbert to take the lead on the
issue. But Gilbert isn't fired up over another potentially divisive
issue that has little bearing on getting streets paved, balancing the
budget or promoting economic development.

Gilbert sent an e-mail to other councilors about the request and said
it falls into the category of: "Can't we ever get a break in this world?"

Councilors have about reached their quota of divisive issues this
year, he said. "First, the Ten Commandments, then the public subsidies
and unions, and now the Cannabis Community Coalition."

Mayor Herb Bergson, a former police officer in Superior who busted his
share of marijuana users over the years, was similarly underwhelmed by
the idea of a public debate more suited to state and federal officials.

"I spent 27 years taking the stuff away from people. Now there are
people trying to give it back to them," Bergson said Wednesday. "I
will say, however, that while I see the damage drugs have caused in
society yesterday and today, I also understand that alcohol has caused
much more suffering and death than marijuana."

Hopkins and his group at least want a public hearing in council
chambers.

"Hopefully, a city resolution will contribute to the movement to
regain more local authority for marijuana legislation," Hopkins said.

For now, the issue isn't on any council agenda.